Earlier this season, Aaron Plessinger was on top of the world—literally, he had the points lead! But racing is nothing if not a roller coaster, both in results and emotion, and things took a turn for the worse in Daytona, where Plessinger crashed while running sixth and finished 18th. Plessinger now sits sixth in the standings and is 50 points out of the lead. But, as we saw in Seattle, the cowboy has plenty of fight left in him—he battled Jett Lawrence hard in the heat race, and earned an extremely solid fourth in the main. We spoke with AP immediately following the race to get his take on a great weekend.
Racer X: You looked good out there tonight, take us through it.
Aaron Plessinger: Yeah, thank you. The last few weeks have been really tough and it’s nice to bounce back with a fourth. I wish it would have been a third, we were close to it. I got off to a pretty good start and got shuffled back early. It seemed like 11th or 12th, and I started coming through the pack. Jett [Lawrence] and I got together, and we started picking people off. I knew he would have some good lines so I just kind of snuck in behind him and started using his lines. We stayed the same for a little bit, and I fell off the pace for a couple laps. I started picking it back up at the end but came up short on the podium. I was kinda pissed, but after the last couple weeks, I haven’t finished in the top five. It's probably been about a month, so I needed that. It’s going to be a good week, and I’ll be going into St. Louis feeling good.
You said you were watching Jett’s lines. What’d you pick up on?
We went through the sand, and he started jumping that wall, and I started jumping it too. He switched it up in one of the rhythm lanes, I can’t remember what we were doing there. But I learned that too, and I figured out a better line in the whoops than him. Just little things around the track. He’s so creative, and very smart, obviously.
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You two had a good battle in the heat, also. He would get away then you’d reel him back in. Were you consciously refusing to let him get away?
For sure. He’s dominated the last couple weeks, and anything I can do to keep it close and, not get into his head, but let him know we’re still here. [Laughs] It was a good feeling to get alongside of him and not let him blow my doors off. He’s been unbelievable, so to be able to do that gave me a boost of confidence.
If you had another lap in that main, do you think you would have gotten him?
I think I might have. I was sneaking up on him, I don’t think he really noticed it. Once I started catching him, I got tunnel vision, and I didn’t know it was the last lap. Not that it mattered either way, I was riding as fast as I could around that track. I don’t think I would have done anything different than what I was already doing. Maybe if I had one more lap, I maybe would have gotten him, but you never know.
I know the riders in the KTM group have had some different suspension options you’ve been testing lately, where are you at with all of that?
I tried something different, but that was at Indy, and I went back to what I’ve been running since December because it’s so predictable for me. It feels good, it has felt good, and I don’t think testing mid-season really helped me out that much. Maybe a few clicks here, a few clicks there. I won on the setup I have now, I’ve gotten multiple podiums on it, so why would I try to reinvent the wheel right now? What I have is really good for me, and I like it.
